ARCHIVE PAGE 70
July 2009 - AUG 2009
Not Exactly Opium of the Masses
Tom Spurgeon at Comics Reporter has a story about a meth operation using comic book collecting as a cover to launder money and move the drug across state lines:
Tom Spurgeon at Comics Reporter has a story about a meth operation using comic book collecting as a cover to launder money and move the drug across state lines:
"Unsealed records indicate a massive methamphetamine network bringing the drug into Colorado from Phoenix that was busted on August 14 used collectible comic books as a way to launder the money.
...As for the comics angle, the police reported a half-million "at least" in comic books were seized, although how they arrived at that figure I have no idea."
Tom Spurgeon's Comics Reporter tells of how Diamond Distributors, which has a stranglehold on comic book distribution throughout the USA, will suspend shipping out books for the week of Dec 28 as it too closely coincides with Christmas holidays. Spurgeon finds all kinds of problems with this, all of which make sense, and he doesn't once have to bring up Diamonds monopoly to flesh out his list.
The online comic book personality test. Personality tests seem to be somewhat like a combination of actuary table statistics and astrology. The idea behind this online test is to match your personality traits against those of various famous comic book characters.
The uky.edu site presents the periodic table of elements via comic books. An interesting way to organize the elements into a familiar frame of reference.
Marvel Comics has hit number 70 anniversary years today (August 11, 2009) and is celebrating itself in various ways. You can read of it at the marvel web site: Marvel 70.
But with anything Marvel, I think of Jack Kirby and it makes such events sour.
Long-time comic writer John Ostrander is battling glaucoma which has severly damaged his eyesight. Fans are encourage to help the effort to fund his medical costs at Comix-4-Sight
PHOTO SPLASH
Foto strip of 5 shots of large, beautiful muddy trucks plowing through deep water and goo.
The covered blogsite has a running gallery of comic book covers redrawn by contemporary artists. (Thanks to Rick Bradford's poopsheet for the notice) The gallery is a fascinating mixture of styles and covers re-imaged (sometimes imitative, sometimes wildly different). The artwork by Matthew Allison really stood out to me.
Above: A page from the Tim Sievert authored parable/adventure tale That Salty Air. Click to Enlarge.
Previously unknown Michelangleo Self-Portrait found in restored Vatican painting - Michelangelo
Bill Harvey has just self-published DangerWorld. The Kirby influence is pretty intense. He has sample pages at his site - beholdcomics.com
Above: Panels from the Xeric Award-Winning anthology "Old Man Winter and Other Sordid Tales" by J. T. Yost. Read a review of the book here.
Customize your Google page with "igoogle" home page themes
Joe Sacco has another book coming forth about the Iraeli/Palestinian conflist from Random House Footnotes in Gaza. My problem with Sacco has been one of artwork: in the previous well done Palestine, Sacco depicts the Jews as behind sunglasses, and the Palestinians as having pleading eyes looking out at the viewer. Not hard to see what the artist is trying to drive home.
I saw this link on Tom Spurgeon's Comics Reporter: The Five Facial Expressions of the SDCC Comic Con. John Sellers codifies five looks on attendees as: Determination / Surprise / Confused Indifference / Hatred / Gratittude. He supplies a running commentary on this talmud of facial messages.
The comixology.com site has a good interview with Dirk Deppey, he of Fantagraphics editorial work. Deppey is probably best known for running one of the very best online comic book blogs (iJournalista).
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